HK Doctors Transplant Heart To A 19-month-old

Doctors at the Queen Mary Hospital said on Friday that they have successfully carried out a heart transplant surgery on a 19-month-old baby – the youngest patient to undergo this operation in Hong Kong.

Hui Chi-hoi was just eight months old when he was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy – a condition when heart muscles fail to relax properly, making it difficult to pump blood.

Soon he needed external devices to pump blood and for over six months that is how Hui survived. But by then he had multiple organ failures and strokes.

Surgeons eventually found a suitable heart after the parents of a seven-year-old boy, who died of chronic debilitating disease, agreed for transplant.

The lead surgeon, Dr Timmy Au, said it was one of the most difficult heart transplants he has done in the 25 years he’s been performing them.

The ten-hour long surgery on June 24 was complicated by several factors, he said.

First, they had never operated on a baby that small before. Secondly, most of the heart surface was covered or obstructed by tubes connecting the heart to pumps.

“In order to perform a heart transplantation, you have to remove the heart first and find all the major vessels and control them… it took me almost an hour and a half,” Au said. “We seldom encounter such difficulty before.”

The toddler regained consciousness six days after the surgery and was off ventilation support on Wednesday.

The boy will have to stay in the hospital for another two to three months, and doctors say his rehabilitation journey will be long, adding that it's unclear whether he will be fully recovered from his brain injuries.

Hui's mother said she was immensely thankful to the medical staff and the donor’s family.

“In this Hong Kong community, sometimes we feel that love cannot be seen in our daily life. But in this experience, I can feel that love is all around us,” she said.

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